SideKicks

Destiny's Child

The Zeroes discover that Tabula Raza is a unethical social experiment. A clone child of Victoria Langley & Doctor Alexander Proditor monitors eight cloned children based on Batman, his greatest allies, and greatest villains, to determine nature v. nurture. 8 of these projects exist, each one separate and unaware of the other…

Another Dick in the Wall(er).

Agent Zero and his BOIIS

Are they making a Haas Bot!?

The Future is Now. (Super Sonic Sasquatch!)

After trapping the Zeros in an alternative dream realm, Conundrum turns Teen Lantern to his cause, giving birth to the first deviant, Terrorlax. After a fierce battle, Condundrum and Terrorlax are stopped from opening a direct portal to a place called Zero Point, the exact center point of all convergent realities, though they do use a portal to escape capture. An independent sentient Violet is created in the aftermath of the birth of Terrorlax and joins the team as they are likely to run into Teen Lantern again.

Nihil awakes.

Underground Fights, Drugs, and T-Reichs. Oh My!

The Coming of Nihil

It’s been eight months since Batman left Gotham, four months since the Zeroes’ acquisition of ProtoCorp, Inc. and three months since the disappearance of Tom Albertson.

The Mayor’s office is embroiled in scandal after a memo surfaced suggesting that Gotham PD and members of the Mayor’s administration worked in collusion to willfully distort the city’s violent crimes rates. Leaked in the rash of some of Gotham’s most brutal murders, the media is tearing Janet West’s administration apart and the Mayor is desperate for a solution to save her political career. The media narrative is simple: the city is without its heroes, the crooks are no longer afraid, Batman is never coming back.

Mayor Janet West requests counsel with the Zeroes and proposes they become the new guardians of Gotham, that they restore faith and optimism to the city, that they join her in ushering Gotham into its new century and overshadow Metropolis using ProtoCorp technology to futurize the city, “to do what Wayne can’t!” West explains the first thing they need to do is to put an end to the recent series of murders being sensationalized in the media. The Zeroes respond with mixed reactions, some rejecting the Mayor’s proposal outright sensing West’s political intentions whereas others seem to agree conditionally. The Mayor’s phone rings abruptly with news of the latest murder having taken place at the Gotham American, an apartment in a revitalized district of the city.

Teen Lantern provides transportation to the Gotham American where the Zeroes meet with Gotham PD’s Bullock who noticeably smells like a cheap Italian Cold Cut. Bullock explains that inside the apartment they’ll find some grisly stuff, that he’s happy Gordon isn’t here to see it and that “even Batman would have the Boy Wonder cover his eyes for this one.” The lights are down and against the far wall facing the windows lies the body of a woman in her early 30s. The floor is dark with blood. The blood is smeared all across the floor and adjacent furniture suggesting she was wrestling with her assailant. She’s suffered obvious trauma to her head with clumps of blood and brain matter staining her once blonde hair. The woman has a terrible wound in her abdomen. Her eyes are wide open. Brainchild examines the body more closely determining that the victim was pregnant and that the fetus was crudely removed. Brainchild also recovers fragments of an uncommon material from the wound, likely material from whatever implement was used in the murder. Schism notices his lack of hunger around the corpse and feels a familiar presence in the scene.

The Zeroes quickly research the woman’s background identifying her as Talia Redding. They immediately suspect her husband’s involvement with the murder. Kinetic Kid speaks with the buildings’ facilities managers and reviews security tapes feeling fairly confident that he’s spotted the murderer and a potential accomplice. Unfortunately the tape quality is below average and only offers that the suspects are a man in his early 30s and a woman possibly the same age. Upon leaving the apartment the Zeroes notice the word, “Nihil” painted on the wall in Talia Redding’s blood. Bullock states that this is the sixth time that word has shown up at a murder scene in Gotham.

The party splits up: Pastor Ted Haas investigates the other murders and learns that in each case the victim lived in an affluent section of Gotham and that each murder has resulted in the removal of a body part or organ. Haas later goes to Gotham PD Headquarters to speak with Otis Redding, the husband of the deceased. Haas mindprobes Redding and confirms he was not involved in the murder, that Redding was on a business trip to Metropolis the night the murder occurred. He also learns that Redding is an accountant at ProtoCorp. Pastor Ted Haas asks if Redding is familiar with the term “Nihil.” Redding explains it means “nothing” and preceded the concept of “zero” in mathematical value.

Schism and Brainchild go back to Protocorp to analyze the materials found at the crime scene. Analysis shows that the material shares characteristics of both crystal and basalt – Brainchild is able to confirm the material is not from Earth. Schism recalls it as a “fundamental” material in his dimension but cannot remember what it was used for.

Kinetic Kid and Teen Lantern visit Harvey Dent at the old Zeroes hideout. Harvey is growing irrational and offers them nonsensical notes about investigations he’s been working on. He explains he’s failing Batman, that his poor mentorship of the Zeroes is evidence of that. Kinetic Kid suggests he takes a break and offers him the ProtoCorp suite.

Hybrid leaves the Gotham American, adopting canine features, and follows the scent of the murder back to the New Gotham Arts District. The scent terminates at a large sewer grate. Hybrid enters the sewers and becomes lost in the mazelike tunnels. Hybrid later obtains a map of the latest build out of Gotham’s sewer system.

Overnight, Brainchild has a disturbing dream reliving her interview with Prototor eventually having visions of him rigging up the explosions which resulted in her current state. The dream flashes again to a domestic setting where she’s in the Brainchild body, talking to Prototor when an adult Victoria Langely enters the dining room asking that Brainchild go help her sister. Prototor tells Brainchild that they can speak at anytime but that for now he would like for her to listen to her mother and help her sister. Brainchild is woken up by Vicki. Vicki gives Brainchild her mail and discusses, in brief, the invitation to the Gotham Archaeological Society gala saying they should really go, etc.

Vicki then informs Brainchild:

“I think I’ve cracked it. I won’t lie. I borrowed your hypothesis, not that it was genius or anything, and you’re probably right. Its mitogenesis. Proteus accelerates mitosis. Proteus introduces special proteins which engage in the cell division process, resulting in super cells of a sort. In short, it introduces new genetic material and tells cells to grow, BOOM, at a rate that even the FLASH couldn’t even keep up with….no telling when it stops either….we’ve had a culture going for 24 hours now….its unclear what short term effects are, combined metastasis and mitosis at this rate is in essence, cancer,…..there’s no way to predict its effects or what powers it gives; its dependent on the sample I would assume. We’ve heard of all sorts of effects…..The question is, if we can pinpoint metahuman qualities to these proteins then who the hell did they get them from to begin with?

Brainchild later researches the history behind the GAS event and uncovers a brief article written by Richard Tulley. She shares this information with the Zeroes who proceed to research the whereabouts of Will Herzog, the Department Chair of Anthropology at Gotham University who oversaw the archaelogical dig resulting in the findings to be exhibited at the GAS event. The Zeroes learn that Herzog committed suicide. They contact Joe Webb for information about Richard Tulley and learn that he’s a minor reporter at the Times and that he lives in the New Gotham Arts District and runs a personal blog covering the Gotham Arts scene. Joe assures Brainchild he can arrange for all the Zeroes to attend the event.

Later, Kinetic Kid is contacted by Captain Sylvia Savage of the ProtoForce. She checks-in to confirm whether or not ProtoForce should assist in any current operations. Kinetic Kid asks that she prep the troops for certain operational maneuvers. He also requests that Savage setup a security team for the Gala event and that she attend herself as Haas’ guest. Kinetic Kid learns that Tom Albertson left Savage as his first officer. She explains she was an external hire and that she wasn’t with ProtoForce until after the Zeroes took over. Kinetic Kid looks up her personnel record and learns she’s served in a number of private armies.

Teen Lantern has spent most of his time patrolling Gotham, preventing various crimes, and notifying Gotham PD of criminals he’s captured, etc. At some point he becomes overwhelmed with a strange focus of anger and determination emanating from a particularly crowded section of the New Gotham Arts District. Teen Lantern eventually narrows the source of this energy to a single individual and follows him to a sewer grate. When the individual attempts to lift the grate Teen Lantern seizes him, taking him to the rooftop of a nearby building for interrogation.

Teen Lantern picks up on behavior that suggests the hipster is possessed. He takes him to the lab for evaluation by the hipster’s own volition. Pastor Ted Haas successfully mindprobes the hipster and creates a mindlink which all the Zeroes tap into. Early visions into the hipster’s mind show his day-to-day activities followed by him entering the sewers. Haas and Schism eventually sense that a force is attempting to block their efforts, keeping the vision limited to the mazelike tunnels of Gotham’s sewers. Not everyone remains with the link – Schism collapses as he struggles to sustain the connection. Only Pastor Ted Haas stays in long enough to see visions of the hipster emerging into a lit opening where he sees a group of 30-40 persons congregated around something. The vision ends there. KK fashions a Psychic Field Disruptor with the hopes of being able to break any mass psychic link they encounter.

Screw Destiny!

Highlights:

Brain Child is alerted by Victoria Langley about an temporal anomaly detected by NOOTUN. She rushes to her counterparts lab to find that NOOTUN had pulled Schism from an alternate dimension. NOONTUN reports that this alternate earth is specified Earth 71, somewhere outside the 52. Schizm claims to be from a dimension where Earth has been ravaged. it’s rumored to have been ravaged by creatures he calls Caltrips, creatures that eat the dead, preferring the dead parts of matter, be it inanimate, organic, or souls. He also claims to be possessed by one of these creatures. Though weary of the newcomer, they offer him sanctuary until they are able to return him home.

Hybrid & Teen Lantern are brought up to speed with the goings on since they were captured as The Kinetic Kid infodumps the newcomer about the reality he’s currently in.

Days pass until the time for the arranged meeting with the mysterious ‘They’ at Gotham Century Tower arrives, Tom Albertson orders The Red Shirts to send a squad of twenty men in plain clothes out to patrol the area around the tower and Pastor Ted Haas orders a small group of plain clothed police officers to back them up. Victoria Langely tags along this time for reasons of her own.

They arrive at the tower and enter the basement. Inside, they find a smug young man, who looks around 15-16 years of age, waiting for them. He introduces himself as Geass and bids them follow him down into the depths below the tower.

Inside, they find a room with twenty one thrones, each numbered with a roman numeral. The Kinetic Kid looks over the room to see his mentor and step-father Captain Kinetic as well as his mother Friction among those seated in the thrones. Hybrid notices a teenage boy about his age laughing at him from one of the thrones.

Geass introduces the group as The 21. A group gathered by ‘The Hermit’ who sat in seat nine who will play a large part in the future to come. He claimed his lord has seen the destiny of the world where the 52 come together as one once again. In this future, The 21 shape and bring forth ‘The Hermits’ grand vision. He ‘offers’ the Zeros their seats among The 21.

Brain Child asks nervously about the whereabouts of Alexander Proditor as well as Christine Whaller & Joe Webb. Geass declares that Joe Webb is here, but unharmed. He orders him given over to the Zeros. He does express his condolences about not having Christine or Dr. Proditor. Proditor had taken Christine to “take back the company that he built.” Brain Child is alarmed at this, though doesn’t make a move to act.

The Kinetic Kid asks about Conundrum as he had been on one of the tarot cards they had retrieved from Proditor. Geass smiles and said he is here or he could not be here. Rather than being banished from our reality like was thought, Conundrum had actually taken refuge inside either Joe Webb or Christine, merging his existence with one of theirs.

Tom Albertson balks at all this talk about seeing the future and demands proof as well as the identity of ‘The Hermit’. Geass begins to dismiss Tom outright when ‘The Hermit’ himself stands and lowers his hood. Only a skull existed behind the hood. The Kinetic Kid immediately recognizes him as Dr. Destiny though quite changed since the last time Captain Kinetic and he had encountered him.

Destiny declares that Tom will betray the Zeros or that he shall be the martyr that bring The 21 together. Both outcomes he had seen. He urges the Zeros to join The 21 to take the benefits of the throne and help him usher in the future that he has foreseen.

The Zeros turn down his offer, but Geass glances at them and each feels compelled in varying degrees to join. Most shake off the influence, but Hybrid falls under his sway and offers to join.

As he ascends to take the thirteenth throne (Death), the teenage boy from earlier comes over to him, introducing himself as his brother. Hybrid balks at the idea, but has his identity confirmed by Victoria Langley. This takes Hybrid aback, but his new-found brother embraces him warmly.

Tom Albertson, not liking the situation at all, acts on his own. He fires a teleportation bullet at Hybrid sending him outside and into the waiting arms of the assembled Red Shirts. Hybrid quickly changes into were-chameleon form and escapes from his would-be captures.

Unable to bear the hunger anymore and on the teams urging, Schizm begins to feed on the hate, darkness, and death that had been shrouding the throne room. Captain Kinetic rushes forth to stop him, but The Kinetic Kid intercepts him, taking the shot from his mentor and father figure.

Friction steps down from her throne and begins to talk toward Tom Albertson. However, before anyone can act further, Hybrid busts into the room. He marches up to Destiny and Geass and demands his benefit from taking the throne. He wants the Zeros to be allowed to leave. The benefit is granted. Captain Kinetic steps down and Friction stops in her tracks.

The Zeros urge Schizm to keep ingesting as they try to stall a little longer. When Destiny notices this, he urges Friction and Captain Kinetic to take down Schizm, under the loophole that he wasn’t a Zero.

Meanwhile, Pastor Ted Haas has noticed the presence of Harvey Dent down below in the dungeons of the complex. He dashes off to rescue him. Brain Child, on the other hand, looks around for Teen Lantern worried about where he could be at a time like this. Her glance manages to find him in a dark corner, shivering and mumbling to himself. He is alternatively flashing between yellow and green as he attempts to control his powers. Though unsure why he was freaking out, though suspecting it had something to do with Destiny and the things Teen Lantern had been forced to see during his battle with Terrorlax in the Sea of Time, she knew quite well how destructive his powers could be if uncontrolled.

She tries to warn everyone when Teen Lantern’s tentative grasp on his powers loosens and everything and everyone is covered in yellow light. All but Schizm, Pastor Ted Haas, Hybrid’s brother, Friction, and Geass are affected. Yellow apparitions fill the throne room as each affect person begins to relive their greatest fears. Brain Child burns over and over again in yellow flame. Victoria Langley collapses and she’s overrun by a multitude of copies of herself. The Kinetic Kid is berated by images of his mother and step-father berating him. Hybrid is forced to be encased in a iron maiden made of silver. Captain Kinetic sees the grave of his step-son and falls to the ground weeping. Destiny is covered in a mass of transparent yellow flesh that melted from his bones over and over again.

The others suffered, but Tom Albertson suffered the most. Wrapped in yellow cocoon, he was forced to relive his personal traumas that turned him into what he was today over and over again, for what seemed like eternity. Knowing what was going to happen, but forced to watch anyway.

Unaffected, Schizm notices Friction heading toward him despite the chaos going on around them. He quickly turns his hunger on her. Eating the rotting and dead parts of her soul.

At the same moment, Pastor Ted Haas pauses at the entrance to the dungeons when sees the yellow light. He gives a quick glance back and notices Friction’s advance. He gives her a mindblast and she falls unconscious, at the feet of Schizm.

The Kinetic Kid finally comes back to his senses. Shaking off the affects of the apparitions and the fear, he sees his mother down lifeless in front of Schizm who was continuing to ingest the dead parts of her soul. Enraged and blaming Destiny for this, he races off to where Destiny sat in his throne screaming. He delivers a full powered double axe-handle
blow directly to the skull of Destiny.

The frail skull cracks from the blow and Destiny screams louder and shriller than before. His body turns to dust leaving behind only his robe.

All those that had been under the full ‘contract’ of The 21 collapse into unconsciousness, Victoria Langley and Joe Webb included. Teen Lantern also collapses.

The Zeros begin to return to their senses when the fear effect was cleared away and begin to take note of what was going on. Pastor Ted Haas returns with Harvey Dent, having rescued him from his cell.

The Zeros stare at Geass, who just shugs and snaps his fingers. Any lingering compulsions they made have still had from unfinished ‘contracts’ were dissipated. Geass begins to leave from the front entrance as the Zeros watch him leave, wondering if they should attempt to cease him. Thinking better of it, they round up their casualties.

While the rest of the Zeros handle the clean-up, Tom Albertson calls Proditor on his private line. He is uncertain if he’ll answer or if the number would still even works. Proditor does answer and Tom demands to speak with Christine. Proditor is silent for a moment and informs Tom that she is dead. Not giving him a chance to explain, Tom shoot himself with a teleportation bullet and vanishes, leaving the rest of the team even more confused than before.

Upon their return to ProtoCorp HQ, they check-in with security to find that an attack had been staged against the building, but had been held off. Brain Child has the unconscious placed in medical with a 24-hour watch on them as well as a 24-hour watch on Tom Albertson’s apartment.

The Kinetic Kid rises; Proditor falls.

His milk is delicious.

No Force but Yourselves

On the heels of their last exploits, the Zeros find that Dr. Alexander Proditor held a press conference announcing a new, revamped ProtoForce, obstinately for the purposes of making sure corporations follow international law. They are:

Things cut to Pastor Ted Haas holding an opposing press conference. In the middle of the press conference, an aid comes down and says there is a problem with the Mayor, and thus triggers the set of events the Zeros must contend with. The Zeros address the following problems, and discover:

The Mayor has a collar clamped on her neck (ala Harley Quinn) and a note pinned to her reading (DO NOTTOUCH).
Revenge: Joker has put a kill device on the Mayor’s neck with energy field sensors. If any meta-human power or energy signature is triggered in proximity will explode. In addition, large needles are plunged in Mayor West’s neck and attached to the triggering mechanism of the explosive collar were tiny minute wires that would activate the collar at the slightest touch.

Victoria Langley (In Arkham, actively and willingly in cahoots, but driven mad by an unsolvable puzzle)

The Bright Knights: New super gangsters in townAlbert Thompson and Captain Kinetic, corrupted by one of Conundrum’s puzzles, were worried about the future of their wards. Working with Conundrum to ‘save’ the Zeros, they setup this new mob gang. Captain Kinetic disappears amidst the chaos, while Albert Thompson forces an unsolvable puzzle onto Brain Child who, instead of falling under the sway of the negative, actually solves the unsolvable puzzle. This forces Albert to fall under her control and allows her to ask him who the negative was. His response was one word. ‘Conundrum’, whereupon his head explodes and his spirit to imbue Thomas Albertson’s weapon with strange reality bending properties.

Unknown Vigilante (dubbed ‘The Teabagger’ for the marks he left on his victim’s faces as done by a ‘a hot sack’):
Turns out to be Two Face. Working secretly on his own, without Harvey’s knowledge on the promise that he can be put back ‘in charge.’

Eventually, the Zeros uncover the above and come to conclude that:

Zero Force is alternate reality version of themselves, traveling through the multiverse to keep reality from tearing itself apart at the hands of:

The Negative: Conundrum. Somehow, Conundrum’s defeat at Vanishing Point turned him into an entity that’s very existence threatens reality itself.

The Positive: Proditor, Fat Girlfriend, or Reporter Joe Webb. One of these people may inadvertently working to keep the multiverse together.

The Arc concludes as the Zeros conspire to put Conundrum, his minions, and the potential positives all in one place. Zero Force desperately works to keep reality from crumbling, while The Zeros confront Conundrum. A huge brawl erupts, but before the situation totally falls apart, Brain Child manages to scrawl out the solution to the unsolvable puzzle that had been burned into her memory. Teen Lantern glimpses it, manages to withstand it’s mindwarping properties, and beams a construct of into the air. This causes mass panic and forces Conundrum to retreat, leaving behind his captives as well as more questions than answers.

Brain Child disappears three days after getting back to Gotham, but despite any inquiries nothing is found on her where-abouts. There isn’t much time to look, either, as without Batman (and other missing heroes), keeping the peace is very difficult. One good result of this hero vacuum is that the Zeroes actually get some small recognition for their deeds; it’s not much, but the police in Gotham will at least be more receptive and the citizenry at least have heard of them.

A month after returning, three events noteworthy happen:

In Metropolis, the ProtoCorp HQ has a break-in and arson attempt. Dr. Alexander Proditor downplays the issue in the press saying that no permanent damage was caused.

Gotham Century Tower nears completion. 1,054 meters high on completion, it’s the tallest skyscraper ever built. Since the Tower was a primary campaign platform for the current mayor, the press and TV is inundated with advertising and fanfare about the impending completion. A massive parade and city-wide holiday is planned for the grand opening in two weeks time. Such an event would be a magnet for some of the more destructive and crazy super-villains, so Harvey Dent wants everyone to be alert of possible targeting of the grand opening.

Casting a damper on the festivities is the recording of several tremors along the Gotham fault-line in recent weeks. Geologists at Gotham University have tried to assure the public that these small seismic shifts are perfectly normal and there is nothing to worry about, but the whole city is understandably uneasy about it. An even greater sense of unease than usual pervades the entire city.

For the first time in weeks, the endless press of crime lessens a bit in Gotham, leaving both Teen Lantern (who now has newly discovered powers, somehow unlocked in his ring) and The Kinetic Kid with some time to look into these matters.

First, the pair discover that ProtoCorp stock price has been rising and falling at a very rapid pace since news of the break-in and arson attempt. Attempts to get further information on the strange occurrence is stymied. After a bit of discussion on the relative importance of the relevant news, the two decide to head to Gotham University to investigate the unnerving earthquakes plaguing the city.

Once there, the pair arrange to meet Dr. Kyle Kellington of the Gotham U geophysics department. Since they have some time to kill, the pair split up and decide to investigate separately; Teen Lantern decides to see what the word on the street is (as well as cruise for chicks), while the Kinetic Kid meets with a Dr. Victor Fredricks, dean of the College of the Sciences.

Teen Lantern overhears some of the student body more prone to recreational biochemistry talk about a new drug that only “eggheads” use. Attempts to get more information are unsuccessful, though Teen Lantern does end up with quite a few numbers of comely co-eds — much to the consternation of Violet, the AI embodiment of his ring. He reports this new information to the Kinetic Kid.

Meanwhile, the Kinetic Kid had suddenly decided to attempt to get an adjunct teaching position at Gotham University. Dr. Fredricks is polite, but clearly uninterested — though he does allow the Kinetic Kid to take a very difficult physics exam, just to humor the hero. Dr. Fredricks is flabbergasted when the exam is returned, complete, in a matter of minutes and done perfectly. Dr. Fredricks says that the exam results will take a least two weeks, however, to grade. Taking advantage of the good doctor’s surprise, the Kinetic Kid asks about the referenced drug, inquiring if perhaps some of the faculty may be using it. Dr. Fredricks stiffly denies any illicit substance use by anyone on the teaching staff.

The Kinetic Kid and Teen Lantern then go to their meeting with Dr. Kellington in geophysics. Kellington repeats the press sound-bite of the University that everything is fine and there is no danger, but it is clear that he’s hiding something. Attempts to get Dr. Kellington to say more are met with stonewall resistance, though Teen Lantern manages to lift a file while Violet distracts the good doctor which spells it out: The quakes are increasing in severity and it is most definitely not safe. There is no known geophysical mechanism to cause it, however; it seems someone or something is aggravating the fault line underneath the city. The Kinetic Kid asks Dr. Kellington about the drug as well, but gets a mildly offended response. He then asks — HYPOTHETICALLY — what would happen if the quakes were dangerous. Dr. Kellington admits that, with the current rate of growth in severity, a catastrophic earthquake (anywhere from 7.0 – 9.0 on the Richter Scale) would occur in two weeks time. All hypothetical, of course.

Two weeks is a long time, however, and the break-in at ProtoCorp seemed more pressing, so the pair decide to travel to Metropolis and investigate.

Deciding to first get some more information on the strange behavior of ProtoCorp stock, the duo disguise themselves as high-brow investors working on behalf of Wayne Enterprises and enter a brokerage firm. They are seen immediately and inquire about ProtoCorp. Mr. Secretary, the investment broker sent to help them, agrees that the stock behavior is most unusual, but further information is restricted to share owners only — unless the Mr. Wayne wished to wait for the annual SEC end-of-term report, in which any proprietary stock information is required by law to be released to the public.

Kinetic Kid and Teen Lantern decide then to buy exactly one share, which is enough to get them access to the restricted information: Proditor was forced to admit in a memo to shareholders that the damage done by the saboteur was much worse than press-releases stated. Proprietary research documentation was stolen and the backups destroyed, as well as lots of valuable equipment. It will set ProtoCorp research back by quite a lot — in excess of a year, at least. The pair of heroes then thank Mr. Secretary and promise to give a good report of the brokerage firm to Mr. Wayne before heading out and deciding to confront Dr. Proditor directly.

Once at ProtoCorp headquarters, they find the reception to be very wary, almost outright hostile. Asking to see Proditor, the pair are kept waiting for forty minutes before two guards — armed with clearly unusual weapons and also highly suspicious — escort the pair to a private elevator and take them to see the CEO of ProtoCorp. On arriving at the top floor, they are greeted with eight fully armed and kitted out The Red Shirts with Proditor in the middle.

To quote the Kinetic Kid: “Jesus!”

Proditor is very cold and suspicious of the pair, though Kinetic Kid manages to calm the situation somewhat. The Kinetic Kid tells Proditor that Brainchild has been missing for a month and Proditor is very interested. After a moment, Proditor shows the pair a surveillence video that seems to confirm their worst fears: it shows Brainchild walking through ProtoCorp, taking out guards, and finally sabotaging the research facility. The last shot before the screen goes blank is Brainchild looking directly at the camera and smiling. Has Brainchild gone rogue? The Kinetic Kid and Proditor promise to exchange any further information.

After a good night’s patrol and rest, the duo decide that the only thing left to do is go and investigate the Gotham Century Tower itself. A bit of digging reveals the project was started nearly six years ago by the previous Mayor, and has been a project in constant trouble. Meant to be both a symbol of the reborn Gotham as well as a money maker for the city (the proceeds from rent of office and apartment space go to the city as well as boosting tourism), the Tower is basically a mini-city in itself with its own fire, police, and other municipal accoutrements included within. Delays in construction, financing, union strikes, super-villain attacks and so on have made the project into a boondoggle and something of a bitter joke among Gothamites (it’s called the ‘Gotham Century Tower’ because it won’t be finished until next century!). The current mayor promised during his campaign to get the project back on track. Unfortunately, it looked like that was one campaign promise that was destined to fail as problems continued to plague the project.

That is, until a year and a half go when the chief architect proposed a radical redesign to the upper 2/3rds of the building yet to be completed. The design reduced the material and time needed to complete the structure by nearly an order of magnitude. Use of robotic labor (supplied by a number of companies, but most notably LexCorp) in place of humans, while controversial, dramatically improved productivity on the construction site as well. After squandering years and hundreds of millions of dollars, the project was suddenly looking to come in on time and under budget. The transformation is nothing short of miraculous.

It is odd, then, than the Chief Architect (one Harold Sumiyoshi) inexplicably committed suicide six months ago by jumping off the top of his magnum opus. The project has still progressed smoothly despite his death, however.

After a bit of discussion on the facts, the Kinetic Kid and Teen Lantern decide to go visit Harold Sumiyoshi’s widow, Mary. The Sumiyoshi household is actually in a fairly pleasant area of Gotham — a middle-class suburb, really. Not rich, but definitely comfortable. The pair knock on the door and Mrs. Mary Sumiyoshi greets them and asks them inside.

While going through the hallway into the living room, the pair both notice a set of pictures on the wall. Most are photos of Harold and his wife, but there is one which contains three people: Harold, Mary, and some unknown other man. This immediately gets Teen Lantern’s suspicions up.

The Kinetic Kid is considerate to the widow, consoling her briefly and stressing the importance of the questions they are about to ask. While still sad, the suicide happened half a year ago and Mary agrees to help in any way she can. The Kinetic Kid asks the widow about Harold and she notes a distinct downward spiral in his attitude soon after he drafted the original redesigns. He became moody and withdrawn, almost paranoid and having mood swings between manic giddiness and violent anger. He would go off on lengthy, nearly incomprehensible rants about the mayor, the city counsel, and even the citizenry themselves. She tried to get him to see a doctor, but he would have none of it. The Kinetic Kid notes that this seems strange in the extreme — shouldn’t Harold been on top of the world at this point? His dream was just about to come a reality, having saved it from a morass and probable slow death. Mary agrees that his slide in mental stability was strange and that perhaps they should talk to Harold’s good friend and current chief architect of the project, Vincent Mallory.

It is here that Teen Lantern decides to pull a risky maneuver, using one of his new ring powers. Switching to Yellow, he invokes the emotion of Fear — affecting both the Kinetic Kid and Mary Sumiyoshi. Instantly, two yellow specters appear, one being Captain Kinetic who immediately begins to berate his former sidekick. The other is far more monstrous: it is the very image of Harold Sumiyoshi, but a broken, bloody, mangled mess of a man. With the sound of cracking bones and wet, oozing putrification, the horrific manifestation lurches its way over to the poor widow and cries out in a gurgling voice: “Yooooou killllled meeeee!”

To quote Kinetic Kid: “HOLYSHIT!”

Mary Sumiyoshi screams in abject terror and scrambles over her seat, eventually moving to a corner and curling up into a fetal ball, whimpering and sobbing piteously. The Kinetic Kid, completely unaware of what is happening, immediately moves to attack the image of Captain Kinetic, but does no damage to the construct. Teen Lantern struggles to control the abombinations, to no avail. Mary Sumiyoshi screams out, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry I slept with Vince!” His suspicions confirmed, Teen Lantern changes his ring to Compassion, banishing the yellow monstrosities and healing Mary’s mental anguish.

Shocked by the events, the Kinetic Kid decides to escort a dazed and out-of-it Mary Sumiyoshi to her bedroom, quickly mentioning demonic possession and suggesting that the widow contact a priest for an exorcism of the premises before beating a hasty retreat.

The pair then go to the Century Tower project itself, to find Vincent Mallory — current head of the project, friend to Harold, and lover of his wife. Vincent proves to be a genial fellow, happily answering any questions that are given to him. He confirms the widow’s testimony about the strange behavior of Harold before his death. Teen Lantern then bluntly mentions his affair with Mary and, for a moment, Vincent is dumbstruck. After regaining his senses, he tries to explain himself while the Kinetic Kid attempts to salvage the situation diplomatically. Vincent mentions that Harold was never at home and that his continued slide into insanity took a toll on his and Mary’s marriage. And it’s not as if Harold was a saint; he had a lolita on the side who would make “deliveries” to him every week.

This information causes both the Kinetic Kid and Teen Lantern to pause. Kinetic Kid begins to describe Brainchild’s non-costumed appearance and Teen Lantern makes a construct of her as a visual aid. Vincent confirms that is who he saw. Teen Lantern is particularly angered by this news; it does seem as though Brainchild has betrayed the Zeroes. And given that Harold had contact with her a year and half ago, she must’ve been involved with this before she even joined the team!

The pair ask if they can look around Harold’s old office and Vincent agrees. Before leaving, though, Kinetic Kid says that Vincent should go visit Mary — the woman is lonely and could use a shoulder to cry on and a friend. Vincent admits after Harold’s suicide, he wanted to give her some space and not try to be a reminder of their adultery, but agrees to go see her later.

A search of Harold’s office reveals a bottle of pills marked ‘Brilliance’ and copies of the Tower plans, while a quick hack of his computer brings manic, paranoid journal entries planning to “kill ’em all!” to light. Although not an architect, Kinetic Kid’s knowledge of physics allows him to see the shocking truth of the Tower plans: the tower itself is an earthquake machine! Once completed, sympathetic vibrations from the tower to the fault line will cause a catastrophic quake.

The pair then head to the top of the tower, where robot workers continue the construction apace. Here they find a large metal ball, meant to keep the building stable in the wind. Working together with Kinetic Kid as the brains and Teen Lantern as the brawn, the duo manage to rework the upper floor just enough to stabilize the tower and prevent a catastrophic earthquake — the tremors will continue, however, until the tower is properly redesigned and rebuilt. They then expose the problem to the authorities and the Gotham Century Tower project is shut down, just a few days before its completion.

In the aftermath of the reveal, Mayor Janet West finds herself in a political minefield. Outrage over the project — that it could’ve resulted in another massive earthquake in the city — reaches to such levels that the city council orders a special election to take place in one month. Mayor West will run, though her current poll numbers are pathetic.

Vice Mayor Argus Blackwood is also running, hoping to supplant his boss. In a press junket, it was revealed that he is being sponsored financially by ProtoCorp.

Charles Grey, a self-made billionaire, also stepped up to run for the public office.

A Villain Revealed; A Temporal Reboot

Messing with time has it's punishments

A horrible future awaits

Zero Crisis Begins!

Highlights:Waverider talks to each of them as they float through the Sea of Time. Explaining that a mad man is attempting to take over all time and reality. He sends them into the timestream to find four objects of particular value.

When the team regains consciousness, they find themselves in a storage area of sorts. Metal crates and other storage materials litter the area.

The Kinetic Kid spies a door on the far side of the room and heads toward it. He finds it locked and needs both a keycard and passkey. Brain Child notices a ventilation grate directly above the door and decides to see if they can use that. She climbs up, unscrews the grid, and climbs through.

Inside, she begins to hear a electronic whirring as three horizontal laser beams coming directly at her. She throws herself from the shaft and back out onto the floor.

Finding that won’t work, she attempts to hack the locking systems on the door. She fails spectacularly, setting off the alarm.

The team quickly hides among the boxes as a number of guards come to check the area. Determining that it was a false alarm, the guards leave after a sweep of the area.

The Zeros come out of hiding and contemplate what to do next. The Kinetic Kid offers to smash the door, but Brain Child feels that will set the whole place off. Hybrid says he’ll brave the ventilation systems to find control room to find some place to open the door or shut off the laser systems for the ventilation systems.

Hybrid assumes were-mouse form and begins to skitter nimbly through the ventilation while avoiding the lasers. His nose begins to smell the scent of coffee and he heads in that direction.

He finds another grate and, peering through it, finds a lone research working over his desktop.

Shifting to were-spider form and dropping silently through the grate, he catches the scientist by surprise and knocks him unconscious. A quick search of the scientist’s labcoat and office, he finds a keycard and the passkey. He silently creeps back to the storage room and unlocks the door. The team retreats back to the office to plan their next strategy.

As they wonder about the item that they are supposed to find, an image of it immediately appears in their mind. Brain Child hacks into the desktop to search for any indication that the item is stored in this place.

Hybrid uses his smartphone to determine when and where they were. Oolong Island, 8 months into the future from the moment they left Metropoboken.

Brain Child manages to confirm that information as well as find some limited information about Oolong Island as the item they are searching for. She determines they need to get to the main computer room deep within the facility. Based on the plans she found, she determines they are on the third floor.

The group plans to disguise The Kinetic Kid and Brain Child as scientists and Hybrid as their test subject. Which ends up working surprisingly well. They travel undetected despite the number of labs and offices on that floor and find the elevator they need to descend toward the main computer room. However, they don’t have access to that floor. The keycard they stole from the unconscious scientist only allows access up to the 3rd floor. The one they are currently on.

They quickly hatch a plan, where Hybrid ‘escapes’ and causes a distraction that takes the guards away from the guard station on that floor. Once that happens, The Kinetic Kid will sneak into the guard station, insert his name into the records as a resident physicist and print himself and Brain Child security cards for the floor they want.

As the plan begins, things begin going wrong almost immediately. While Hybrid does attract the guards attention, but they begin to shoot him with stun blasts from their energy rifles. Brain Child chases after to explain not to hurt her ‘precious experiment’. They look at her and ask why she was on this floor, when her office is much lower. This confuses her for a moment, but she makes up some excuse about taking her little experiment for a walk. The bluff works with Hybrid playing the role of the scared pet.

Meanwhile, The Kinetic Kid finds the guards station still manned by two guards. He is noticed and quickly makes up some story about losing his id and security card. When questioned further, he manages to bluff his way into the station though the guards grow increasingly suspicious. Under the gun, The Kinetic Kid stealthy fires a pencil, with his kinetic powers, into the security camera of the office and takes out the guards quickly and quietly.

Brain Child quickly returns with Hybrid and is let in to the guard station by The Kinetic Kid. Brain Child begins to work on the security system as The Kinetic Kid keeps watch. Hybrid dons the uniform the guards were wearing as his new disguise.

Brain Child gets into the system only to find that the security card machine in this office can only make cards for floors up to 12, which is one floor above the one they need. She does discover that each floor houses scientists of varying degrees, the notoriety increasing with each floor with the 13th floor being the most prestigious and maddest.

The Kinetic Kids warns her about time, and she begins to search for a scientist of similar age and appearance on the 12th floor. She finally does, though she does note an entry for a Victoria Langley listed among the scientists on that floor. She overrides the scientists picture and retina scan data and prints out a LVL12 Security Clearance keycard. They quickly make haste to the elevator and the 12th floor.

While the stealthier members of the group sneak into the ProtoCorp aircruiser to gather information, Teen Lantern and The Kinetic Kid continue to take the fight to the villains, impressively taking out Aquaman rival, Black Manta.

With ProtoCorp main building plans acquired and the battle ending with a “victory” for the heroes, the Zeroes quickly leave the scene to patch themselves up. However, there is no rest for the wicked, as Waverider appears in front of them, tells them that they are needed for a crisis in time, and teleports them away.

Opal City Destroyed

The team’s handler, Harvey Dent gets wind of a person of mass destruction being aimed at Gotham. The team races to Keystone City and discovers a suspicious terminal. The newly joined Pastor Ted Haas manages to break through Dr. Psycho’s mental interference and lead the team through the psychic static. The team attacks the hanger; but they are tricked into deal with two planes that don’t have the dastardly Chemo aboard. They race aboard another plane and give chase, but quickly discover Sinestro and Dr. Psycho are with Chemo. Desperate, they make a huge display of power to attract the attention of OMACs. The Kinetic Kid rams their plane into the other plane, just above Opal City. Teen Lantern takes the team aboard the plane. Sinestro quickly causes problems, but not before Pastor Ted Haas persuades Chemo that something is wrong. Chemo makes his jump, aimed at Gotham, too early!

Joker, to the Rescue

Brain Child and Teen Lantern are forced to deal with the Royal Flush Gang’s bank robbery in progress. However, they find an unlikely ally in the Joker, who disposes of the Gang and booby traps the hapless hostages. Although a bit brutal at times, the heroes manage to save the victims lives.

The Countdown to Zero Crisis begins.

Highlights:

Tom Albertson is in the hospital nursing the wounds received during the short battle with the Penguin.

The name of the group of the chosen. The Zeros won the vote.

An odd riddle arrives at Zero HQ (The Abandoned Warehouse) as well as a threat to kill 5 scientists if the riddle isn’t solved. The Kinetic Kid is worried it might be the Riddler, but Brain Child and Hybrid make short work of the riddle.

Racing off to the Mooney Bridge, Teen Lantern scouts from the air, while The Kinetic Kid races across the bridge on NEWTON. In the center of the bridge is a corpse, and another mocking letter and two accompanying riddles.

The corpse seems to be of one Dr. Emil Hamilton of STAR Labs in Metropolis. Though contacting STAR Labs seems to verify that Dr. Hamilton is still among the living.

Brain Child solves these new riddle in flash and they are off to Finger River.

Hybrid shifts into were-shark form and begins scouring the bottom of the river. While Teen Lantern and The Kinetic Kid patrol the area from the air and ground.

However, it’s Brain Child’s keen eyes that spy the corpse in the waters first. They fish it out only to find it to be a man named Dr. Alexander Proditor. The very same Proditor that Brain Child now despises. She happily poses the corpse in funny positions as The Kinetic Kid and Hybrid read the next letter along with the next two riddles.

As they ponder this set of riddles, Teen Lantern calls from the air that the Gotham Botanical Gardens were on fire. Deciding they had their next answer, they race off toward the blaze.

Teen Lantern attempts to smother the fire with a construct from his ring to no avail. Brain Child begins to dig a trench around the blaze to keep it from spreading and fills the trench with a flame-retardant foam that she quickly develops. Hybrid shifts into were-elephant form and rushes to a nearby lake to gather water to douse the blaze. The Kinetic Kid rushes NEWTON directly toward the blaze only to hit the breaks suddenly. Using the resulting kinetic charge from the shock of the stop, The Kinetic Kid dashes past the flame without harm and into the heart of the inferno. Inside he finds the final three corpses (An unknown scientist, a Dr. Jonathon Crane, and a Doctor Mephistopheles) and a final riddle.

As they battle the blaze, nothing seems to work against it, though Brain Child’s foam does seem to stop it from spreading. Finally, the flames change to a green color and being to disperse.

Curious, but grateful for the breather, they contemplate this newest riddle. The answer comes readily to them all and they head toward the Clocktower.

They arrive there to find a man dressed in a way that could only be considered as cross between The Riddler and Two-Face. He calls himself Conundrum.

A fight ensues, which immediately turns in the Zero’s favor thanks to the quick douse of the room in slippery goo by Brain Child.

As his guards and thugs are taken care of, Conundrum yields. He gives the Zero’s one last riddle.

As Conundrum finishes the riddle, a slow clapping begins to fill the room. From the shadows of the room at the top of the ClockTower, five shapes begin to emerge.

They introduce themselves as The Deviants, future versions of the Zeros. The Deviants consist of:

They have come to offer the Zeros one of two things. Stay out of their way as they attempt to rule reality and give up one of their own to be beaten, or if they refuse, simply die.

Brain Child doesn’t wait for The Kinetic King to finish speaking. She quickly dives out of the glass clock face that broken during the fighting. She grabs onto a nearby drainage pipe and slides to the ground.

The Kinetic King nods and Terrorlax is off after Brain Child. The Kinetic King simply sighs after that and both groups make a break toward where Terrorlax and Brain Child.

Meanwhile, Brain Child finds herself cornered by Terrorlax. The Kinetic Kid hits Terrorlax with flying shards from a yellow billboard as NEWTON collides with him as well. The impact knocks Terrorlax aside, but has the bad outcome of ‘killing’ Brain Child.

Hybrid in were-chameleon form stealthily grabs Brain Child and they escape into the sewers.

Teen Lantern and The Kinetic Kid manage to hold off the revived Terrorlax until a wolf’s howl causes him to return to his group. Thankful that they made it out alive, the two return to their headquarters to find Brain Child and Hybrid there.

After patching their wounds, Hybrid hears another wolf’s howl and changes into his were-wolf form and begins to investigate. He reports that he could smell his own scent coming from outside. Suspecting that they have been compromised, The Zeros quickly move to another safehouse specified to them by Harvey Dent.

The would-be heroes all receive a mysterious message from unknown@unknown.com telling them they’ll have a chance to prove their heroism, should they choose to meet at an abandoned warehouse in the legendarily crime-riddled city of Gotham.

Teen Lantern, Brain Child, The Kinetic Kid, Hybrid, and Tom Albertson arrive at the warehouse. They awkwardly say little one another and investigate the place. During those investigations a TV turns on with a silhouetted and voice scrambled figure on screen. He gives them an address, 1750 Crowley Street and tells them that they’ll be needed. Should they trust him afterwards they can meet up.

The Kid hops on his sentient motorcycle, Newton, while everyone else flies with Teen Lantern. They arrive to see nothing amiss. Brain Child, in a flash of inspiration heads into one building. Using her keen mind and senses she quickly realizes she is in an orphanage for obese children and that trouble is brewing.

The Tween Titans find a set of thugs throwing obese orphans into a van. One van escapes as the Kinetic Kid and Hybrid deal with the other van and Teen Lantern, Tom, and Brain Child fight the abductors in the orphanage. The team hands over the thugs to the cops and tracks down an area where the van disappeared.

After alerting to a mysterious grate in the road, the team investigates and abandoned Ice Cream Parlor where the Kinetic Kid triggers a switch revealing a secret lair. The team prepares for a fight and storms the room to find over a six goons, a dozen dopplegangers of The Penguin, each with a Mad Hatter card! They realize that the Penguin wanted body doubles! While The Kinetic Kid and Hybrid begin to disable the cards on the farthest Fat Orphan Penguins, Tom is knocked down by gunfire, Brain Child frantically works on a scrambler for the mind control, and Teen Lantern plays crowd control. The team mops up with goons and frees the kids and eventually Penguin reveals himself, offering a bargain in exchange for his freedom.

The Penguin reveals that all the Villains are united under Lex Luthor, and that men in the middle, like himself, are stuck in the middle. Moreover, only one man was declined an invitation, The Joker. Gotham’s normal heroes will need help, and he says if the city is in danger of being destroyed he would lend aid…

The heroes are summoned by their mysterious benefactor to Arkham Asylum where they are startled to learn he is an inmate! They proceed down and see form DA Harvey Dent, fully restored and healed in an unlocked cell.

“Most of the crime fighters here will never forget I was Two-Face, but some people still believe in Harvey Dent,” he says sadly. “Bruce Wayne does, at any rate. With my connections to the Underworld and little bit of his money I still can find out major crimes before they start. Yet, I still am not paroled and I refuse to break the law by leaving early. That’s why I’ve brought you here to Gotham… together we can save this town.”